


warm front

by astralscrivener



Series: modern au: squad up universe [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boys In Love, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), M/M, Sleeping Together, Snow, THEY'RE IN LOVE SUSAN, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 03:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13918293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralscrivener/pseuds/astralscrivener
Summary: “What’re you doing out of bed at three AM?” Lance asks.Keith shrugs one shoulder. “Dunno. Curtains were open. Snow looked peaceful.”Keith takes some time to reflect.





	warm front

**Author's Note:**

> the idea wouldn't leave me alone, so i had to write it. this is literally just them being soft. in my head this takes place between chapters 108 and 109 of squad up.

                The clock reads three in the morning when Lance wakes, a single, bare foot sprawled out on the empty side of the bed where Keith should be. Lance squints and discovers that his jacket, too, has disappeared from where he draped it over Keith’s desk chair. Lance sits up, fumbling for his phone, and uses the screen to illuminate the space near the edge of the bed where he ditched his slippers.

                Lance slides them on, snags one of Keith’s sweatshirts from a bedpost, and pads out of the room, door to Keith’s room squeaking as he opens it and pokes his head out into the hall. Lance hears Shiro snoring from somewhere else in the house, and breathes a sigh of relief that he hasn’t woken him up. Lance slips into the hall, peering in closets and offices with open doors. None of them turn up Keith. Even the bathroom is empty.

                With no other option, Lance descends the stairs, each step creaking beneath his feet. He winces with each sound until he’s down, and peers around in the darkness. Every light downstairs is off. Lance flips a few switches, but each room is empty. Keith isn’t in the kitchen, isn’t in the dining room, doesn’t sit on the couch in the living room, isn’t in the bathroom.

                Lance passes the front door and pauses, and then backtracks, and peers out the window on the left of the door.

                “Bingo,” Lance whispers, and turns the knob, letting in frigid air.

                He steps onto the porch of the Brogane residence and shuts the door behind him. Keith, leaning against the railing, either doesn’t hear him or doesn’t acknowledge him as he stares at the snowfall. The flakes glow orange, illuminated by the lamps running up and down the street. The sky, too, though dark and gray, has an orange-pink sheen to it.

                “Hey, you,” Lance murmurs, and comes up behind Keith, wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist and propping his chin on Keith’s shoulder.

                “Hey,” Keith replies softly.

                “What’re you doing out of bed at three AM?” Lance asks.

                Keith shrugs one shoulder. “Dunno. Curtains were open. Snow looked peaceful.”

                _Peaceful._ The word strikes a chord in Lance, because _Lance_ and _peaceful_ , in his opinion, rarely go together in the same sentence.

                “Am I intruding?”

                Lance’s voice is quieter than before, if such a thing is possible.

                “No,” Keith replies, without hesitation. “It’s better with you here.”

                Lance’s nervous expression melts into a smile that Keith can’t see, and he settles against him. The winds are light but bitter, pricking the exposed skin at Lance’s ankles and on his face, but the rest of him keeps warm, pressed up against Keith. Here, Lance thinks that he could fall asleep.

                Keith’s head falls against Lance’s, pulling Lance out of his reverie.

                “You know,” Keith says, “one day we’re gonna be able to do this in a place of our own.”

                Lance’s chest seizes, as the thought pulls at his heartstrings. He can see them in a multitude of places—on the commons, on a college campus, their dorm just a stone’s throw behind them; on an apartment balcony, warm drinks clutched in trembling fingers; on a porch almost like this, but the house is theirs, and not Keith’s cousin’s, and their children are asleep upstairs.

                “I can’t wait,” Lance manages hoarsely.

                A year ago, a future with Keith seemed like a vague possibility. They weren’t even a year into their relationship, and the honeymoon phase was barely over with. Lance had long since opened up to Keith with his insecurities, but Keith had only started to let Lance in about two months before. A year ago, neither of them were sure if they’d work out, or if this was just another stop along the way to the final destination with a different person.

                Now, a future with Keith is an inevitability, something Lance can’t picture with anyone besides him.

                “Why are you awake?” Keith finally thinks to ask, completely unaware of the thoughts running through Lance’s head.

                “Bed was cold,” Lance answers, after a few seconds.

                “Aw, sorry. Next time I’ll leave a note,” Keith says, a certain level of amusement in his voice.

                They quiet again after that. Lance runs a hand up Keith’s torso, and it comes to rest above his heart. He pinpoints the exact moment Keith’s heartbeat speeds up, and warmth spreads throughout his system. He’s fallen asleep countless times listening to this heartbeat, and will do it again countless more.

                “Alright,” Lance says, after some time, “I love you, but I’m freezing. I’m going inside.”

                “I’ll be in soon,” Keith promises, as Lance lets him go.

                “Yeah. Try not to get sick, because if you go down, I go down,” Lance jokes, and kisses Keith’s cheek, and heads back inside. He pauses when he shuts the door, and watches Keith draw his jacket tighter about himself, as his shoulders bunch, trying to make up for the heat lost by Lance’s departure. Then he turns and starts back upstairs.

                Lance kicks of his slippers, but keeps Keith’s sweatshirt on. He buries his nose in the collar of it and inhales. It’s been a while since he’s stolen this one, and it smells distinctly like Keith again. Lance lies down and makes a mental note to not leave without this whenever he decides to go back home.

                He’s on the verge of falling asleep again, in the blurry space between dreamland and reality, when the door opens, and light seeps in from the hallway. Lance doesn’t open his eyes, even when the bed sinks down, and Keith makes as little noise as possible as he shucks off Lance’s jacket and his boots.

                When Keith finally lies down and crawls beneath the covers, he wiggles his way into Lance’s arms, and Lance adjusts for him, until Keith is practically on top of him, head against his chest.

                “Cold?” Lance mumbles.

                “Yeah.”

                “Everything alright?”

                Keith doesn’t answer right away. Lance strokes his hair gently, a move that makes Keith’s breath hitch. His fingers curl slightly, where they lie splayed against Lance’s chest, grabbing at his sweatshirt.

                “Just reflecting. Thinking about Christmas. I miss Christmas,” Keith says.

                Christmas. Keith spent Christmas Eve with the McClain family, and the night ended with the two of them asleep on the Brogane couch. Lance had to drive them home in Keith’s Jeep, because Keith was two seconds away from passing out. Christmas Day itself was spent here, along with Shiro and the Alteas, a more intimate affair than the McClain Christmas party.

                “Was it the snow?”

                “...Yeah. Uh...can I...can I tell you something?”

                “Mm?”

                Keith’s breath isn’t shaky, exactly, but it isn’t the most steady. Maybe it’s just the way he’s reclined. Then again, maybe not.

                “Freshman year...that’s...sort of when I realized I had depression.”

                Now Lance opens his eyes.

                He peers down at Keith, but all he can see is the top of his head, the dark hair pulled into a short, loose ponytail that threatens to fall apart.

                “You having an episode?” Lance asks quietly.

                “No, no—” Keith laughs nervously “—it’s just that...when I first realized, it was about this time of year. I remember...I remember sitting by the window and watching the snow some nights. It was one of the ways I calmed down. Sometimes it just...reminds me of that time.”

                “Oh,” Lance says, because typically he knows exactly what to say, but not this time. Not when it’s now close to three-thirty in the morning, and his brain isn’t at functioning capacity, and all he really wants to do is hold Keith, and protect Keith from everything bad the world could throw at him.

                If Keith notices his unusual lack of a reply, he doesn’t let Lance know.

                “Yeah,” Keith murmurs. “It’s nothing you need to worry about. And you definitely weren’t intruding. I...kinda needed that, actually.”

                Keith yawns and pulls himself closer to Lance. Lance continues threading fingers through Keith’s hair.

                “I love you,” Keith says, voice suddenly a lot heavier with sleep.

                “I love you too,” Lance says. “Now and forever.”

                “You and me, us against the world,” Keith mumbles, and sounds borderline delirious. Lance smiles thinly and shuts his eyes again, and listens to Keith’s breathing slow, and listens to the wind blow against the closed window.

                “Us against the world,” Lance repeats, so quietly he almost doesn’t hear himself.

                Sleep claims Lance again while Lance is smiling, and his hand has stilled in Keith’s hair, and the snow continues falling outside.

**Author's Note:**

> "eileen, why do keith and lance have to be all touchy-feely-cuddly in your fanfics?" because i live vicariously through them and they're my comfort ship and cOME ON THEY ARE SOFT AS HELL I LOVE THEM
> 
> anyway squad up is updating later today, and i'm aiming to update stars go down by monday...maaaaaybe sunday?
> 
> see ya then!


End file.
